, October 11, 2018— Salt Lake City, Utah — October 11, 2018 — Collective Medical, delivering the nation’s largest and most effective network for care collaboration, today announced a partnership with the Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA). The partnership supports providers across the state with real-time information at the point of care to identify and support complex patients. In addition to fostering care collaboration across KHA member hospitals and surrounding regions, the partnership will focus on helping member hospitals identify and support patients with a possible substance use disorder and will prioritize workplace safety and security for care teams.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Kentucky is among the top ten states with the highest opioid-related overdose deaths—with nearly double the national rate. Related, the state has seen a 37-fold increase in Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome between 2000 and 2013.

“Collective has supported dramatically improved patient outcomes in states across the country, and it has become instrumental for hospitals combatting the opioid epidemic,” says Melissa Platt MD, of the University of Louisville Health System. UofL Hospital is located in the heart of the Louisville Metro, and is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the region. Platt continues, “We’re thrilled to join the Collective network and provide our care teams with a proven technology to identify and collaborate on our high-risk and complex patients.”

Use of the Collective network and platform is proven to impact the opioid epidemic. As an example, Washington State, where Collective serves as the technical backbone to the state’s groundbreaking “ER is for Emergencies” program, has seen a 24 percent reduction in opioid prescriptions coming out of the emergency department (ED) since the program’s inception. Likewise, at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, Alaska, use of the Collective platform combined with statewide prescribing guidelines has resulted in a 61 percent reduction in opioid scripts written between 2015 and 2017 and a 47 percent reduction in opioids given in the ED.

“The Collective network gives our hospital a way to collaborate with other care teams to identify and develop care plans for at-risk and complex patients,” says Dennis Johnson, CEO of Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown, which operates one of the busiest EDs in the state. Johnson adds that, “With Collective, hospitals in Kentucky are empowered to work with each other—and with hospitals across the country—for the benefit of our patients.”

The partnership between Collective and KHA will also target security and safety in the ED, which is a priority not only in Kentucky but nationwide. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) announced results of a recent poll of 3,500 emergency physicians finding that nearly half of those surveyed had been physically assaulted while at work. More than six in 10 of those assaulted say it has occurred within the past year. Likewise, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that of the 25,000 workplace assaults that occur annually, 75 percent occur in healthcare and social services settings – and these incidents are under-reported. The Collective network offers a unique and effective way for facilities to record and share security and safety events for the benefit of care teams and patients. The Collective platform offers EDs the opportunity to document when a patient poses a safety threat to care providers, staff, other patients in the ED, or themselves.

“This partnership will foster collaboration between our state’s care teams, making it easier to provide patients with quality care, while achieving the larger goal of curbing the opioid epidemic and prioritizing the safety of hospital staff,” says Mike Rust, president of the Kentucky Hospital Association. “Collective has successfully helped other states throughout the country, and we’re excited to start applying the same collaborative strategies here at home.”

Collective is currently partnered with more than a dozen state hospital associations across the U.S. The Collective platform is a real-time, risk-adjusted event notification and care collaboration tool fueled by collaboration between emergent, inpatient, post-acute, mental and behavioral, and ambulatory settings, as well as stakeholders in ACOs and health plans.

“We’re inspired by the spirit of collaboration demonstrated by Kentucky hospitals,” says Chris Klomp, CEO of Collective Medical. “We’re grateful to partner with the KHA and be a part of the solution in the fight against the opioid epidemic.”

Collective is endorsed as a best practice for emergency medicine by the American College of Emergency Physicians and has been recognized by Inc. Magazine and by the MountainWest Capital Network as one of Utah’s fastest growing companies.

Learn more about Collective’s impact at www.collectivemedical.com.

ABOUT COLLECTIVE MEDICAL
Collective Medical empowers care teams to improve patient outcomes by closing the communication gaps that undermine patient care. With a nationwide network engaged with every national health plan in the country, hundreds of hospitals and health systems and tens of thousands of providers, Collective’s system-agnostic platform is trusted by care teams to identify at-risk and complex patients and facilitate actionable collaboration to make better care decisions and improve outcomes. Based in Salt Lake City, Collective is proven to streamline transitions of care, improve coordination across diverse care teams, and reduce medically unnecessary hospital admissions. Learn more at www.collectivemedical.com and Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

ABOUT THE KENTUCKY HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA), established in 1929, represents hospitals, related health care organizations, and integrated health care systems dedicated to sustaining and improving the health status of the citizens of Kentucky.